Febronianism

Febronianism, a German religio-political doctrine expounded by Bishop Johann Nikolaus von Hontheim (under the pseudonym Justinus Febronius) in his De Statu Ecclesiae et Legitima Potestate Romani Pontificis (1763; “The State of the Church and the Lawful Power of the Roman Pontiff”). The doctrine imposed severe limitations on the pope, making him subject to the total church and to a general council of bishops, and strengthened both the state and the national bodies of bishops. It found ready adherents in those places that actively resented papal power. Hontheim’s work was condemned and placed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum (“List of Forbidden Books”) in 1764. The French Revolution and lack of support from the majority of the German bishops led to the collapse of Febronianism by the end of the 18th century.

(Latin: “Index of Forbidden Books”), list of books once forbidden by Roman Catholic church authority as dangerous to the faith or morals of Roman Catholics. Publication of the list ceased in 1966, and it was relegated to the status of a historic document.

the revolutionary movement that shook France between 1787 and 1799 and reached its first climax there in 1789. Hence the conventional term “Revolution of 1789,” denoting the end of the ancien régime in France and serving also to distinguish that event from the later French...